Go to activity:

News

Marine Newsletter #13 – December 2010

Highlights from the Marine Programme at GRID-Arendal for December 2010

1. Featured Project

Capacity development for sustainable management of the marine environment

GRID-Arendal is in the process of developing a marine capacity development initiative. This will aim at sustainable management of the marine environment and it will be developed in consultation with developing countries and communities in order to help identify regional issues and priorities. It will build further on existing capacities and initiatives. The generated tools, processes and techniques will help underpin marine assessment studies, integrated coastal zone management and marine spatial planning processes in developing countries.

Focus areas for skills development will center on 3 main pillars being technical capacity, communication capacity and sustainable management practices. This initiative builds further on the extensive experience of GRID-Arendal as implementing institution of the UNEP Shelf Programme. Furthermore, experts from Norwegian institutions will be invited to share their expertise on sustainable management of the marine environment in these activities.

2. Events

Recent eventsSeminars/meetings/conferences related to the marine environment where representatives from GRID-Arendal have participated:

MSV (Many Strong Voices) side event at the UNFCCC COP16, Cancún, Mexico, 1 December - "Voices from the South and North: Food Security and Human Rights in Small Island Developing States and the Arctic".

4-7 January
Ottawa, Canada: Project and fundraising meetings with Natural Resources Canada, Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, the Canadian Polar Commission, the International Development Research Center and the Canadian International Development Agency.
10-11 January
Washington, D.C., USA: Project and fundraising meetings with UNEP-RONA, NOAA, World Resource Institute, National Geographic, the World Bank and the US State Dept.
12-13 January
Kingston, Jamaica: Consultation meetings with the International Seabed Authority and discussions with the UNEP Caribbean Regional Sea Office.For more information, please contact Yannick Beaudoin.

22-23 January
Tromsø, Norway: PAME (Protection of the Arctic Marine Environment) Workshop on ecosystem approach to management (EA) on Boundaries and status of Large Marine Ecosystems (LMEs) in the Arctic.For more information, please contact Tiina Kurvits or Morten Sørensen.

3. Other

I am happy to introduce to you the new Head of our Marine Programme, Yannick Beaudoin. Due to GRID-Arendal’s new team structure and a rotation principle in our Management Team, Morten Sørensen offered to change positions with Yannick. Morten will continue to play an important role in our Marine Programme by focusing on the Marine Ecosystem Management Team, and I am sure to be able to further benefit from his long standing experience in GRID-Arendal. On the other hand I believe, with Yannick, we bring a young, very talented scientist (see more here) into our management, who will bring new approaches and ideas to shape the further development of our Marine Programme. I am sure you will also enjoy collaborating with him. And I am looking forward to see our working relationships with UNEP’s Marine unit and other relevant partners further resulting in important achievements for the marine environment.

Best regards,

Dr. Peter Prokosch
Managing Director

Did you know that…...fishermen in Laguna, Brazil, are being assisted by dolphins? The dolphins herd fish towards fishermen standing in shallow water and even signal when the men should cast their nets.
Source: The Telegraph
... fishing nets have killed more sea turtles in the Gulf of Mexico than the BP oil spill? Most of the sea turtles found dead during the spill appear to have drowned in fishing gear.
Source: Ecoworld

If you would like your website to be featured here, please contact Rannveig Nilsen.

EarthWire Marine
EarthWire Marine is a free online news service provided by GRID-Arendal. You can get marine environment news e-mailed to you every day or sign up to an RSS feed. Registering is simple. We pledge to protect your privacy, and users can at any time unsubscribe from the service. To subscribe, visit the EarthWire Marine website.